CMPD Youth Crime Unit seeing results, still work to do

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte Mecklenburg Police are working to reduce juvenile crime with their JADE Unit. J.A.D.E is an acronym for Juvenile Accountability and Diversion Empowerment the team has dedicated officers visit the homes of young people who are at risk for crimes.

“The idea is to do it before they hit the adult offender list. We want to be able to provide the resources to where they change their lifestyles before they turned 16 and commit a violent crime before they turn 18,” Captain Eric Tran-Thompson from JADE Unit said.

Captain Tran-Thompson says data shows the team’s efforts are paying off. Juvenile arrests are down and home visits are up comparing 2024 to 2025. He says the team took 157 firearms off the streets last year.

“We did a home visit with the juvenile who was involved in an armed robbery. During that visit, the juvenile actually voluntarily provided over the stolen firearm taken during the gun store robbery,” Captain Tran-Thompson said.

Captain Tran-Thompson taking guns away from young people can proactively reduce crimes.

“Most of these were coming out of the hands of juveniles who have, unfortunately, low impulse control and these arguments turn into violent crimes, such as homicides,” Captain Tran-Thompson said.

JADE Unit works with families to help address the root cause of a juvenile’s misbehavior.

“We look to see what drives the juvenile to be out in the middle of the night and commit these crimes. We want to provide resources that would help the family out the most. We have resources that range from financial management, parenting classes, conflict management, boxing, job training and things like that. The idea is to see what that specific family and that juvenile needs,” Captain Tran-Thompson said.

CMPD is still dealing with an increase of young people shooting into buildings and stealing cars. By partnering with families to get to the root cause of kids committing crimes they say they are seeing better results.

“We are trending in the right direction. Our juvenile crime numbers are down both in property and violent crime, and we are doing everything we can to address juveniles as a whole, and multiple approaches between accountability and providing the resources necessary to break the cycle of recidivism,” Captain Tran- Thompson said.

CMPD will release the first quarter crime stats within the next month.